A Few Important Resume “Don’ts”

I have spoken previously about how to leverage your resume as a means of outshining your professional competitors, but today I would like to dive a little deeper into this subject by outlining a few things not to do when building your resume.

If you keep these things in mind, your CV is less likely to be overlooked or ignored and will have a higher chance of successfully landing you a position.

1. Don’t be overly artistic. Make your resume pleasing to the eye, but realize that most companies and recruiters tend to use software to parse documents into an applicant tracking system. Therefore, odd spacing, layout, or font choices may prevent this software from picking up on important keywords in your resume.

2. Don’t let spell check be your only set of eyes. Spell check is a great tool but will not catch every error. It is best to review your resume several times and then pass it to a friend. It is likely they will find something that you and your spell-checking software may have missed.

3. Don’t leave your address or desired geographic location off the resume. Recruiters and companies would rather not guess where you live.

4. Don’t leave recruiters and companies guessing about where your accomplishments originated. Rather than just listing your achievements, it is important to make clear when and where they came about.

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I guarantee that avoiding these mistakes will improve how you are viewed in this market.

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5. Don’t state the obvious. If the accomplishments you plan to list on your resume reflect tasks that fall under the base requirements of a given job, avoid listing them. Instead, list substantive achievements that make you stand out.

6. Don’t bury “the good stuff.” Put your most relevant and impressive accomplishments front and center, rather than placing them after a laundry list of ordinary tasks.

7. Don’t be repetitive. If the accomplishments and job duties are exactly the same for your last three positions, this acts as a red flag in the eyes of recruiters. It indicates that, potentially, your qualifications and skills have not evolved over time.

8. Don’t provide the full “five-course meal.”Resumes are not meant to be novels. They are meant to entice and provide relevant preliminary information. You can drill down into further detail during the interview process.

If your current resume lacks these eight mistakes, congratulations: You are a resume superstar. But if you find that your resume is riddled with these blunders, it is time to make some key revisions. I guarantee that avoiding these mistakes will improve how you are viewed in this market.

If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.